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Southsideirish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 10:51 AM
Original message
Since many people are checking "Zillow" now when they are planning on
buying a house (that is getting the Zillow Zestimate value of a particular house or condo) why don't sellers just list their house at the Zillow price and eliminate the real estate agent and their 6% commissions?

This would, of course, apply to people who want to get out of their current home fast (say in a few months)and don't want to or have the time to sit on their price for a long time. No negotiating, no games - both parties simply agree to an objective value of the property.

I hope this is the right place to place this inquiry as I wanted DU opinions and couldn't find another spot for it.
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joneschick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 10:58 AM
Response to Original message
1. how reliable is this supposed to be?
cuz my home comes up for 50k less than my current assessment. There's no way I would sell for that.
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Somawas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. According to what I've read/heard
the accuracy is variable. Some markets, pretty spot on. Others, not so good.
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Southsideirish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 11:44 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Oddly enough the Zillow value of my condo is the same price that my
current real estate agent wants to list it at - so why do I need him? I can list it myself with one of those "buy owner" sites to get it MLS listed and not pay his huge commission.
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napi21 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 11:13 AM
Response to Original message
3. I've been trying to get an idea of my home's value, but
Zillow says it can't find it. I tried one of those "free home value" things, but when a REALTOR called and said "Are you thinking about selling your home?" I said, NO, just wanted to find out it's value, she hung up!

Is there some other free sites that don't involve getting involved with realtors?
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Southsideirish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-20-06 11:46 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. Wierd as it seems I live in a row of 5 identical buildings and one of them
Edited on Sat May-20-06 11:47 AM by Southsideirish
has can't be found on Zillow - the others are listed in detail. I can't figure out why some are listed and some aren't.
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Robbie Michaels Donating Member (612 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-21-06 03:26 AM
Response to Original message
6. PLEASE DO NOT USE ZILLOW!
They are known for being inaccurate when it comes to home values. I've seen $1.7 million dollar homes list for $950k on Zillow more than once, and they may have old, public information on their database regarding square footage, room count, etc.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-21-06 11:36 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Good point, thye had almost everything wrong in the description of my
house, other than the correct year of construction.
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Southsideirish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-21-06 04:33 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. I dunno -they were pretty accurate with mine - maybe 5k off. It
changes all the time. Its higher now than it was last month. Its based on zillions of variables that are constantly changing.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-22-06 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. They had the actual info about the house, that subsequently determines
the value of it, all wrong. Wrong sq. ft., wrong #Bdrm, Baths, total rooms. Makes the likelihood of an accurate estimate come to zero.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-21-06 11:35 AM
Response to Original message
7. Just checked my neighborhood and they are way low
12% - 17% which translates to $70K - $200K, any buyers that are depending on this site for their info are in for a rude awakening if they want to live here.
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upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-23-06 10:21 PM
Response to Original message
11. I added 15% on the zillow estimate
and didn't get 1 offer from craigslist.com
I've done extensive work to it too.
Zillow had the basics right but had my house estimated at the same price a nearby condo sold for.
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Coyote_Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-24-06 06:31 PM
Response to Original message
12. My house is cleary overvalued on Zillow
I'd like to think they are right but no way. There have been changes in the neghborhood and road construction. Lots of road construction. There are factors that affect value that cannot be quantified and measured by Zillow.
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sendero Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-24-06 09:37 PM
Response to Original message
13. I'd say ..
... they are pretty close on my house. But, one would be nuts to take their number as gospel. You can hire an appraiser for a couple hundred bucks, if you were going to try to sell without a RE agent, that would probably be a good idea.

Personally, I think the days of the 6% realtor are numbered. There was a time when they pretty much earned that money, but computers and technlogy have changed that like everything else. When I get ready to sell I will definitely try a fizzbo for a couple months at least. :)
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upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-28-06 03:19 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. I've fsbo'd both ways and it always worked fine
It's when I used agents that there were snags and hassles and headaches. Every time. Maybe I'm just unlucky with expensive help.
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